Friday night’s Class Rural District 7 championship game at Bill Woods Court in Hawthorne was a tale of two halves.
The host Hornets won the first half, but Williston won the second half, rallying from a 7-point halftime deficit for a 55-50 win at top-ranked Hawthorne.
The two-time defending state champions won their third straight district title.
“We knew coming to Hawthorne how tough it is,” said Williston coach Jim Ervin. “Coach [Greg] Bowie does such a good job here coaching. They’ve got a good group of young men who play hard every possession, so we knew we were going to have our hands full, especially here at Hawthorne. I’ve got to give my kids credit. We played a grueling schedule this year and it’s paying off.”
It was a hostile gym and a capacity crowd to watch the top two teams in the state in the FHSAA’s Rural classification.
“It was a really great atmosphere, I knew it would be like that because when we played over there early in the season it was a great atmosphere,” said Hawthorne coach Greg Bowie. “I didn’t expect anything less tonight being that it was a home game for us.”
Hawthorne (16-3) led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter but a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Williston senior guard Xavier Kirkpatrick (15 points) tied the game just 10 seconds into the second quarter.
The Hornets responded with a left-wing 3-pointer by senior guard Decarion Debose (12 points) and a layup by senior guard Kelvin Baker for a 19-14 lead.
They held Williston scoreless in the final 3:39 of the half and Debose and senior guard Chasion Wilson each added a pair of free throws for a 25-18 lead at the break.
“Probably the difference in the game if we had lost that game was the free throw line,” Irvin said. “At one point we were 4-of-11…that’s not like us. We’re about a 70% free throw shooting team as a whole.”
In fact, they missed six in a row spanning the second and third quarter, but they made four in a row to take their first lead of the game.
Senior guard Joel Washington (6 points) got fouled shooting a 3-pointer, and he made 2-of-3 to bring the Red Devils (15-11) within one at 27-26 with 5:12 to play in the third quarter.
Then with 4:11 left, Kirkpatrick knocked down a pair of free throws to give Williston its first lead of the game at 28-27 to cap an 8-0 run.
Baker (6 points, 4 rebounds) ended the drought with a couple of free throws for a 29-28 lead halfway through the third quarter.
Williston reclaimed the lead with a right corner 3-ball by senior forward Adam Henderson (6 points), followed by a floater in the paint by junior guard De’Andre Harvey for a 33-29 advantage with 3:12 to play in the quarter.
But Hawthorne answered and tied the game at 33-33 on an offensive putback by junior wing Kyler Ingram and a layup by Wilson (game-high 23 points, 11 rebounds).
“It was probably his [Wilson’s] best game of the season so far,” Bowie said. “He came out aggressive, he was attacking, he was banging in the post. That’s why a few of their guys picked up fouls because they were guarding him in the post and I challenged him before the game to be more aggressive and he delivered.”
The game see-sawed back and forth, with Williston taking a 37-36 lead at the end of the third quarter on a jumper by Harvey (team-high 17 points) with five seconds left, but Hawthorne grabbed the lead again, less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
Wilson had a putback after his miss for a 38-37 lead, followed by a layup by Wilson for a 40-37 lead.
A right-wing 3-pointer by Kirkpatrick to tie the game at 40-40 started the first of three consecutive shots behind the arc by the Red Devils, the last of which was a left-corner 3-pointer by Kirkpatrick for a 46-43 lead with 4:31 remaining.
“In the second half they were able to penetrate and get a kick out and boy he hit two crucial 3s and then they got some momentum right there at the end,” said Bowie, who cited there were two plays in particular that he thought made the difference.
The first was with Williston clinging to a 49-47 lead with 2:26 to play when junior guard Azyron Johnson (10 points) followed in a shot for a 4-point lead with 2:12 remaining.
“There was one possession where we played pretty good defense and one of our guys just kind of stopped and they got a rebound and putback [by Johnson] and I was like, ‘oh we can’t give up layups right there.’ And then another time they caught us scrambling on defense and No. 12 [Johnson], who only averages four points, but the kid had five layups, five uncontested. So 10 points from him when he normally averages four…guys who particularly don’t score, we allowed them to get over their average which kind of helped them.”
Williston was able to get the win despite two starters fouling out late, Kirkpatrick and Washington in the final minute, and Harvey playing the entire fourth quarter with four fouls.
The Red Devils defeated Hawthorne, 66-54, at home on Jan. 17, but now the question is who will be the No. 1 overall seed in Wednesday’s Rural-Region 4 tournament.
“We’re tough at home,” Ervin said. “We love to play at home. We’re looking forward to that, going back home and getting that regional first-round and hopefully we’ll host both games…this happened to us two years ago with Wildwood. We beat them twice in the regular season and beat them in the district championship game and we were still the No. 2 seed, but hopefully, the FHSAA will see what we’ve done during the regular season and hopefully, we did enough to get that No. 1 seed in the region.”
FHSAA Boys Basketball district scores and matchups
(teams in the Mainstreet coverage area in bold)
Rural Class-District 5 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Lafayette (Mayo) 68, 5 Hamilton County (Jasper) 36
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 Hilliard 76, 4 Lafayette (Mayo) 34
2 Madison County 48, 3 Branford 42
Rural Class-District 6 at Bell
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Bell 44, 5 Dixie County (Cross City) 36
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
2 Trenton 46, 3 Union County (Lake Butler) 43
1 Fort White 65, 4 Bell 27
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
1 Fort White 45, 2 Trenton 44
Rural Class-District 7 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Chiefland 74, 5 Bronson 39
3 Wildwood 94, 6 Cedar Key 29
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 Hawthorne 68, 4 Chiefland 52
2 Williston 72, 3 Wildwood 44
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
2 Williston 55, 1 Hawthorne 50
Class 1A-District 4 at Meadowbrook Academy (Ocala)
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Redeemer Christian (Ocala) 55, 5 Countryside Christian 51
Class 2A-District 2 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 St. Francis Catholic Academy 59, 5 Oak Hall 56
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 P.K. Yonge 66, 4 St. Francis Catholic Academy 48
2 St. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine) 55, 3 Trinity Catholic (Ocala) 50
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
1 P.K. Yonge 90,2 St. Joseph 81 (OT)
Class 3A-District 2 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Suwannee (Live Oak) 2, 5 Taylor County (Perry) 0 (forfeit)
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 Florida High (Tallahassee) 67, 4 Suwannee (Live Oak) 26
Class 3A-District 3 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Interlachen 61, 5 Baldwin 47
3 Palatka 69, 6 Keystone Heights 60
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 Newberry 81, 4 Interlachen 31
2 Bradford (Starke) 52, 3 Palatka 30
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
1 Newberry 75, 2 Bradford 38
Class 4A-District 5 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Eastside 52, 5 Dunnellon 48
6 Crystal River 54, 3 Lake Weir (Ocala) 53
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 North Marion (Citra) 55, 4 Eastside 42
2 Santa Fe (Alachua) 57, 6 Crystal River 50
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
2 Santa Fe (Alachua) 45, 1 North Marion (Citra) 44
Class 5A-District 2 at higher seed
Quarterfinals – Monday, Feb. 3
4 Lincoln (Tallahassee) 60, 5 Chiles (Tallahassee) 46
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
1 Gainesville 63, 4 Lincoln (Tallahassee) 55
2 Leon (Tallahassee) 61, 3 Columbia (Lake City) 48
Championship – Friday, Feb. 7
1 Gainesville 63,2 Leon (Tallahassee) 55
Class 6A-District 3 at Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) – Semifinals & Championship
Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 5
2 Forest (Ocala) 55, 3 Buchholz 53
